Microsoft is only dead in Silicon Valley

• What happened to Microsoft? by Marco Arment
• Microsoft is Dead by Paul Graham

While the authors are smart, I think they are caught up in the web / Silicon Valley bubble, because Micorsoft is FAR from dead and they won't be dead for a long time to come.

Sure, they don't dominate all the markets they are in, but they are a major player and leader in a lot of markets:

• Microsoft holds almost 90% of the operating system market share source
• MSN Messnger is the most popular IM client in the world, 60% market share source
• Internet Explorer is still the most used browser, 65%+ market share source
• Microsoft Office is still the most used Office suite (95%+ market share?)
• XBox is selling great and they are taking a market leader position source
• Hotmail is the most used web-email with 250 million users+ (GMail does not have 100 million yet) source
• Microsoft is a big player in web-backend market. IIS and ASP are catching up with Apache netcraft april survey
• .Net has the largest market share amongst developers source
• Even in one of the biggest financial crisis, Microsoft still makes shit loads of money (almost $15 billion in revenue for Q1 2009) source

It's true they have a hard time dominating the web-market, but given the stats above and their track record I am pretty sure they will become a major player in the future to come.

I don't use any of Microsofts products, but I would not write them off as dead - - not now or in any foreseeable future.